Growing up:
So... there was this princess. Most of the life she could remember happened in tiny little 1 hour radius in the Adirondack region of New York, with 130 other people her age that knew every single thing the princess did from the moment she stepped into her first kindergarten classroom to when she tripped and fell across the stage at high school graduation. I'm saying- EVERYONE knew EVERYTHING. They knew when you picked your nose, they knew how you liked your milkshakes, they knew exactly why you weren't wearing your NHS sash during said graduation. Now, the princess didn't exactly love where she lived growing up- standard teenager complaints, nothing to do, nowhere to go, boring people yadda yadda yadda, but she didn't exactly hate it either. There was enough room in her street that she could play roller hockey with the neighbors until the street lights came on, she had best friends that would do anything for her- like punching someone in the face after they tried to push your friend out of a moving vehicle- and there was always adventure to be had in the mountains on the weekends, well the weekends that she didn't have basketball or track practice. The princess had experienced other parts of the country too, ski trips to Colorado, visiting family in Chicago, flying to Disney World to hobble around the whole week with a questionably sprain ankle... and recently a vacation to Barcelona, but that deserves a separate story. The princess was by no means "sheltered" but she also was not exactly well traveled.
The college years:
The princess spent a lot her first year of college- we won't call it miserable- but... without a proper social outlet. She was struggling to find her niche at such a wonderful place and could not grasp how people made new friends so easily. Don't get me wrong she had friends that she went to go get pizza with at 2am, and would let her into their rooms while her roommate got busy with the guys down the hallway, and granted some of it had to do with the fact that she lived on a primarily sophomore status floor she couldn't help but to be jealous when she saw people getting to know each other around her instead of with her. Now the princess got very lucky toward the end of the year freshman year and made some wonderful friends that she would eventually go on to live with and spend the next 3 years of college making amazing memories with, but like I said she got lucky and she did this with the help of one specific and very special friend.
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All through college the princess' confidence was growing and by the end of college she had blossomed into quite the young lady. While her group of friends had shifted somewhat she was a part of a group of people that had gone through a lot together already and had much more coming for them, and she was proud of that. After college the princess was terrified to venture out into the world alone. She claimed time and time again that she was only moving if she had someone to do it with, after all who just goes to another city without and friends or plan or anything to do?? The princess continued to live her new-experience'ly' challenged life (and I hesitate to call it that, I did have some major adventures, they all just happened in New England, but I couldn't figure out what else to call it) until one day she decided to move half way across the country...
Ok she didn't just decide, she was forced somewhat by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the IUPUI dietetic internship program, and the inability to attain those things we call "dreams" without fulfilling a certain amount of supervised practice hours which based upon selection criteria has landed the princess in the flattest part of the country.
Opening a new chapter:
So the princess moves to a city who's population is larger than the population of the entire state that she moved from, that she had never even been to, and into an apartment with 7 other princess' in the same situation. And you know what she's learned so far.. she's learned that when you know where you're going and you avoid the hours between 7 and 9 in the morning and 4 and 6 in the evening, you barely even notice the size of the city. She's learned that even though it's a bigger city, there still is very little to do, very little that costs very little at least. She's learned that you can make your city seem smaller by going to even larger, dirtier, meaner cities (sorry Chicago). And she's learned that making friends takes practice. She learned that all those kids at the beginning of college, or those people that start a new job and are immediately part of the team, aren't necessarily better people or more charismatic, they just have more practice at meeting new people. They've had the opportunity to make mistakes. And life is all about making mistakes; and learning from those mistakes. That carries over to meeting people: you meet someone, you talk for a little while to see if you're on the same page and if your not you find out how to be. When you've done this enough times it becomes second nature, but if you've never had the opportunity to meet people that are different from you (like never leaving New England for more than a week at a time), you don't get to have the opportunity to practice.
Now, I don't know if you could tell or not but, drum roll please... the princess is me! Yes, moving to a new, big, scary city has been quite the learning opportunity... I'm getting lots of practice meeting new people and I flipping love it! When I got visit home in December I'm going to be the friendliest mofo you've ever seen! And to thank you for your time here is a little preview to the holiday card the IUPUI Internship Class of 2015 will be putting out this season. Side note, we got yelled at by our teachers for laughing too much during this photo shoot. We hot cause we fly mother fruckers.
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